Evidence Unveiled In '76 Sla Bomb Case

July 25, 1999|By ANN W. O'NEILL Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — A photo identification by a store clerk, long dead. A fingerprint on the inside of a locked door to a closet containing guns, nails, gunpowder, military manuals and other tools of destruction.

Such is the circumstantial evidence against Kathleen Ann Soliah, the accused revolutionary bomb maker turned Minnesota homemaker, according to a 236-page grand jury transcript unsealed in Los Angeles on Friday after 23 years.

A review of the transcripts of three days of testimony before a Los Angeles grand jury in February 1976 verifies the case against Soliah is, as the current prosecutor recently acknowledged in court, "hardly a slam dunk." But prosecutors say they have enough evidence to bring their case before a jury.

Soliah's defense pointed out last week that there never was any evidence directly linking their client to two bombs planted under Los Angeles police cars -- no eyewitness or physical evidence putting her at the scene of the crime, no tales told by deal-seeking co-conspirators, no careless moves by a woman who was under FBI surveillance within days after the explosive devices were found and defused.

Defense attorney Susan Jordan said, "It was a weak case to start out with, and when the prosecution said it wasn't a strong case, they were telling the truth."

James Marshall, a sales clerk at a plumbing supply store, is the only witness to tie Soliah to the purchase of bomb-building materials. He picked her picture out of a photo line-up, identifying her as the full-faced woman, "a little plump," who accompanied a blond, clean-cut man who bought sections of pipe at a plumbing supply store where he worked. Marshall could not identify the man.

Marshall is now dead. As a result, his grand jury testimony likely can't be used against Soliah during a trial because she and her lawyers never had the opportunity to confront and cross-examine the witness.

The transcript also revealed that several fingerprints were lifted from one of the bombs, found under a police vehicle parked outside the Los Angeles Police Department's Hollenbeck station early on the morning of Aug. 22, 1975.

The only identifiable print, however, belonged to the LAPD officer who defused the device.

The prosecutor, Michael Latin, has admitted in court that the case is highly circumstantial, the evidence old and the memories of the witnesses fading.

Latin isn't commenting outside the courtroom, declining to discuss the indictment accusing Soliah, also known as Sara Jane Olson, of conspiracy to kill police officers, and possessing and attempting to detonate explosive devices.

Soliah, a physician's wife who feeds the homeless, reads to the blind and teaches English to new immigrants, was taken into custody in St. Paul, Minn., last month, when FBI agents stopped her minivan a few blocks from her home.

She has pleaded not guilty and on Tuesday was released from jail after 250 friends, neighbors and strangers raised $1 million bail in little more than a week. As Soliah flew home on Friday for a reunion with her three teen-age daughters, the newly unsealed grand jury transcripts provided a glimpse into the proceedings in February 1976.

After hearing from 27 witnesses over three days and examining 74 pieces of evidence -- including the defused bombs -- the grand jury issued its indictment.

Authorities said they think Soliah helped plant the bombs to avenge the deaths of six SLA members in a fiery 1974 shootout.

Among the SLA dead was Angela Atwood, a close friend of Soliah. The group of self-styled revolutionaries was notorious for kidnapping newspaper heiress Patty Hearst, who joined her abductors and later was convicted for her role in an SLA bank robbery.

Latin has hinted that Hearst could be a witness against Soliah. In recent remarks, Hearst has expressed reluctance to testify.